Non‐natural Cofactor and Formate‐Driven Reductive Carboxylation of Pyruvate

Recent advances in structure-based enzyme engineering for functional reconstruction

Structural information can help engineer enzymes. Usually, specific amino acids in particular regions are targeted for functional reconstruction to enhance the catalytic performance, including activity, stereoselectivity, and thermostability. Appropriate selection of target sites is the key to structure-based design, which requires elucidation of the structure-function relationships. Here, we summarize the mutations of residues in different specific regions, including active center, access tunnels, and flexible loops, on fine-tuning the catalytic performance of enzymes, and discuss the effects of altering the local structural environment on the functions. In addition, we keep up with the recent progress of structure-based approaches for enzyme engineering, aiming to provide some guidance on how to take advantage of the structural information.

Engineering formaldehyde dehydrogenase from Pseudomonas putida to favor nicotinamide cytosine dinucleotide

The enzyme formaldehyde dehydrogenase (FalDH) from Pseudomonas putida is of particular interest for biotechnological applications as it catalyses the oxidation of formaldehyde independent of glutathione. However, the consumption of a stoichiometric amount of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) can be challenging at the metabolic level as this may affect many other NAD-linked processes. A potential solution is to engineer FalDH to utilize non-natural cofactors. Here we devised FalDH variants to favor nicotinamide cytosine dinucleotide (NCD) by structure-guided modification of the binding pocket for the adenine moiety of NAD. Several mutants were obtained and the best one FalDH 9B2 had over 150-fold higher preference for NCD than NAD. Molecular docking analysis indicated that the cofactor binding pocket shrinked to better fit NCD, a smaller-sized cofactor. FalDH 9B2 together with other NCD-linked enzymes offer opportunities to assemble orthogonal pathways for biological conversion of C1 molecules.

Structure-Guided Design of Formate Dehydrogenase for Regeneration of a Non-Natural Redox Cofactor

Formate dehydrogenase (FDH) has been widely used for the regeneration of the reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH). To utilize nicotinamide cytosine dinucleotide (NCD) as a non-natural redox cofactor, it remains challenging as NCDH, the reduced form of NCD, has to be efficiently regenerated. Here we demonstrate successful engineering of FDH for NCDH regeneration. Guided by the structural information of FDH from Pseudomonas sp. 101 (pseFDH) and the NAD-pseFDH complex, semi-rational strategies were applied to design mutant libraries and screen for NCD-linked activity. The most active mutant reached a cofactor preference switch from NAD to NCD by 3700-fold. Homology modeling analysis showed that these mutants had reduced cofactor binding pockets and dedicated hydrophobic interactions for NCD. Efficient regeneration of NCDH was implemented by powering an NCD-dependent D-lactate dehydrogenase for stoichiometric and stereospecific reduction of pyruvate to D-lactate at the expense of formate.